SNS CHOICE AND USAGE: A COMPREHENSIVE RESEARCH MODEL

The use of Social Network Sites has seen tremendous growth in the past years and gained attention and interests from industries. However, with many types of SNS sites available, what factors impact people’s choice of SNS and their usage are still not clear. This uncertainty could misguide industries’ strategies in SNS and causes wastes and failures in their SNS management. While the extant literature finds factors that influence people’s usage of SNS, most of them only focus on one or two aspects. This research however proposes a comprehensive research model that investigates three major categories of factors, namely personal, interpersonal, and cultural that have impacts on both SNS choice and SNS usage systematically. Seven propositions are given to delineate the relationships between these factors and SNS choice and usage. This research sheds lights on research of SNS and makes a good foundation for future empirical research in this regard.